JULIAN
ofLIÈGE(c.1192–1258), champion of the Feast
of Corpus Christi. Born at Retinnes, near Liège, and bereft of her wealthy
parents, she was placed in the Augustinian convent and leprosarium of Mont
Cornillon, near Liège, where she made rapid spiritual progress and experienced
visions. Once professed (1206), she
devoted all her energies to securing the establishment of a Feast of Corpus
Christi. In 1230 she became superior; but meeting with great opposition in the
convent, she was forced to leave and took refuge in the city of Liège. Here,
through the intervention of a recluse at ﻿St﻿ Martin’s church, she won to her
cause John of Lausanne, one of the canons, who secured in turn the warm interest
of James Pantaléon, then Archdeacon of Liège and later Pope Urban IV.

The
﻿Bishop﻿ of Liège having obtained her restoration for a brief space, the feast
was formally proclaimed in 1246, to be observed in the diocese of Liège for the
next year. But the Bishop died (16 Oct. 1246)
before the year was up; the feast was not repeated in Juliana’s lifetime; and
she herself was again exiled and passed the last years of her life first in a
monastery near Namur and later as a recluse at Fosses. The real reward of her
efforts was the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi after her death by
Urban IV in 1264. Her cult was confirmed by Pope Pius IX in 1869. Feast day, 5
Apr.